Steam or electrical street-railway grade-crossing.



M. E. HARRISON & H. D. MGOUTGHEON. STEAM OR ELECTRICAL STREET RAILWAY GRADE CROSSING.

APPLIGATION TILED F213. 8, 1913.

Patented Nov. 11, 1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

WITNESSES I'NVENTOFIS.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH CO..WASHINOTON, D.c.

M. E. HARRISON & H. D. MGOUTGHEON. STEAM 0R ELECTRICAL STREET RAILWAY GRADE CROSSING.

APPLICATION I'ILED FEB.8, 1913.

Patented Nov. 11; 1913.

Z SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WITNESSES fini'ron COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH CQ WASMINGTbN. 1). c4

tinrrnn srnrns rnrnivr ornrcn MARTIN EIVIMITT HARRISON, OF PARNASSUS, AND HENRY I). MGCUTCHEON, OF PIT'JlSBUBGH, PENNSYLVANIA.

STEAM OR ELECTRICAL STREET BAILWAY GRADE-CROSSING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov; 11, 1913.

Application filed February 8, 1913. Serial No. 746,992;

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, MARTIN EMMITT HARRISON and HENRY D. l\[oCUrorInoN,citi- Zens of the United States, residing at Parnassus and Pittsburgh, respectively, in the counties of Vvestmoreland and Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented new and useful Improvements in Steam or Electrical street htallway Grade-Crossings,

of which improvement the following is a "specification. r r ,This invention relates to an improved railway grade-crossing, wherein it is necessarythat a street, road, etc, is brought to the level of the top of the rails, whereby vehicles, such as wagons, may find an easy passage over the tracks; and the invention further consists in the certain details of construction and combination of parts, as

will bemore any) described hereinafter.

Therailway grade-crossing being of the,

typenow in common use, comprises a wooden box-shaped frame placed between the rails, that will permit a filling of material, suclr as broken stone,;paving, etc, the said frame being securely spiked or otherwise attached to the ties supporting the rails, in

such manner, that a railway train may safely pass over;ibut it is also necessary to.

provide a crossing that will 7 permit any vehicle, such as a wagon, to'cross at grade. It 1s a well known fact that rallway-rails project above the general level or topogra phy of the district through which they pass, and that it is necessary to provide a means whereby any vehicle may cross such tracks at approximately right-angles, which has been done at many adj acent and widely separated points of the world.

It is one of the objects of the present invention to provide a crossing that will be of service for a long term of years, also acrossing frame that can be constructed within a shop and conveyed to the place for which it is to be used, and when desired may be taken up and used at another remote or ad- In the accompanying drawings; Figure 1 is a plan view of our lmproved crossing, a part of which is" broken away. Flg. 2

1 ance is a sectional elevation of the same, the section taken on the line y'g of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 an enlarged detailed perspective view ofa portion of the track-rail splice bars, inside and outside guard rails, said guard rails and construction being in accordwith' our invention. Fig. i is a perspective view showing a small section of the end pieces used at the ends of the frame. Fig. 5 is a similar view to that of Fig. 3, in which the guard rails are I made from rolled shapes of metal in place of strips of sheet metal pressed into form.

Fig. 6 1s a perspective view oft-he tread piece of the inside guard rail, which tread piece may be either stamped from sheet r metal as shown in Fig. 3, or rolled, as may be desired, this vlew illustrating how the tread piece is cut-away in order to give access to the nuts of the rail splice for tightening the same. Fig. 7 is a perspective view of a portion of a modified form of the inside guard rail.

To construct a railroad grade crossing, in

accordance with our invention, in which the rails 1, rest upon plates 3, attached by spikes 6 to cross-ties 2 in the ordinary manner, we first provide outside guard rails which in the form shown in Figs. 1 to 3 are formed from strips of sheet metal, each of which comprises a web 7, inclined toward the tread of the railway rail, an outwardly-extendingtop member 8 and a bottom flange 9, the one in line with the other and in parallel planes, the top member 8 being at orslightly below the top of said tread, and the lower flange 9, having openings 10 for the reception of spikes 6, said spikes passing through openings 4 at suitable positions through the above-mentioned rail plates 3.

At the inside of each rail 1, isarranged guard rails differing in form from those arranged along the outside of said rails, each comprising a built-up shape, the lower section of each being of channel form, having a vertical web 11, an upper outwardlyprojecting flange 12, and corresponding flange 13 forming the base, the two flanges being in parallel planes. The lower flange 13 is formed with spike openings 10, for

the reason before stated while describing the outside guard rails. It will be noticed the top portion of the web 11 is slightly inclined away from the rail 1. This construction is to provide for the tread member 11 of the guard inside rail, the form of which will be best seen at Fig. 6 of the drawings, the said tread being rigidly attached in position by means of rivets 15 or otherwise such as welding one part to the other. This shape, just described, consists of two oppositely-disposed flanges 14 and 16, with connecting inclined web 17, the edge of the lower flange 16 resting against the web of the rail 1 to form a support against the jar of passing vehicle wheels. This flange 16 is formed with an elongated recess 18, so placed as to come directly over the nuts 19 of the rail splice 20, thereby exposing said nuts for the purpose of wrenching the same. At either of the ends of these two inside guard members are end members formed of sheet metal, bent into form and of a proper length, and formed with spike openings 10 in the base flange 22, which will admit of these parts being spiked to the cross-ties 2. The top flange 22 is connected to the base flange 22 by an inclined web 21.

The above-described structure will form a shallow box-shaped receptacle adapted to be placed between the rails of the track, the said box being filled to the level of the tread of the rails with broken stone, or paving block, etc, and the same material banked against the outside guard rails, in a manner common in the art.

The crossing as described, may be lifted to renew the road bedand replaced in position without injury, or the same may be removed and used at another or remote point.

At Figs. 5 and 7, we have shown modified forms of the crossing just described, in which rolled shapes of metal are used in place of shapes bent from sheet metal, thepurpose of which and the construction is approximately the same as previously described. In Fig. 5, the outside guard rail comprises a vertical web 23 having on its upper or top edge a relatively narrow outside flange 25, while at its lower edge it has a relatively wide outside base flange 26. The inside guard rail is channel-shaped like the form shown in Figs. 1 to 3, and comprises a vertical web 27, an outwardly projecting top flange 28, and a relatively wide outwardly projecting base flange 29, having spike openings to register with the openings 1 in the plate 8. In the construction shown in Fig. 5, this inside guard rail is of a height that the top flange 28 lies in a plane somewhat below the plane of the flanges 24 and 25 of the outside guard rail, and has superposed thereon the tread member 1 1 made of sheet metal as shown in 3 or the rolled tread member let such as shown in Fig. 6. Whether this tread member be stamped from sheet metal as in Fig. 3, or rolled as shown in Fig. 6, it has the supporting flange 16 which is cut-away as at 18 in Fig. 6 so as to give access to the nuts 19 of the rail splice. In lieu of this two piece inside guard rail however, we sometimes employ the inside guard member shown in Fig. 7 which may readily be rolled, and consists of a web 30 having an outside top flange 31, an outside base flange 32, both projecting from the same side of the web, and on the other side of the web is a supporting flange 33 located closer to the top than to the bottom edge of the web 30, and which serves the same purpose and function as the flange 16 of the tread piece 14 or 14. With this form of inside guard rail wemay employ either the form of outside guard rail shown in Fig. 5, or the form shown in Figs. 1 to 3. In each construction described, it will be observed that we have an outside guard rail or member and an inside guard rail or member of channel form, the web 23 and flanges 25, 26, of the outside guard rail shown in Fig. 5 forming a channel member. Obviously, the flange 33 of the form shown in Fig. 7 may be cut away to give access to the nuts of the rail splice in the same manner as the flange 16.

In each of the constructions, it is to be observed that the channel-shaped guard rails are disposed edge-wise so that the channel in each member is disposed outwardly, that is, away from the rail adjacent to which the guard member is placed. This disposition of the channel members serves to prevent the ballast from moving or being carried toward the rail, as the channels of the guard members form pockets to hold the ballast as will be apparent.

Other modified forms may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, as is obvious.

Having thus described our invention, we claim 1. In a railroad crossing, an outside guard rail and an inside guard rail each of channel form, said guard rails disposed edge-wise with their webs adjacent to and their open or channel sides away from the rail, and a supporting flange projecting from the web of the inside guard rail intermediate the upper and lower edges of said web.

2. In a railway crossing such as described, a channel-shaped outside guard rail and a channel-Shaped inside guard rail, said guard rails disposed on opposite sides of a railway rail with their webs adjacent to the rail and the open or channel side away from the rail, and a supporting flange located between the upper and lower edges of the web of the inside guard rail, said flange having a cut away portion, for the purpose described.

3. In a railway crossing, a channel-shaped outside guard rail and a channel-shaped insigned our names in the presence of two subslde guard r2111, sald rails dlsposed on opposcrlblng Witnesses.

site sides of a railway rail with their chan- .MARTIN EMMITT HARRISON. nel sides open, and a tread member carried HENRY D. MoCUTOI-IEON. 5 by the inside guard rail and having a sup- In the presence of porting flange. W. H. ANCHOR,

In testimony whereof We have hereunto JOHN S. WVILsoN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0. 

